SEC West extends success on the field into success in recruiting
By Ethan Levine
Published:
The 2014 season didn’t end the way the SEC West had hoped, but the division still has plenty to look forward to in the coming years.
Although the West was not as dominant on the field this year as we once thought after posting a 2-5 bowl record, it is undoubtedly as strong as ever on the recruiting trail. According to the 247Sports industry rankings, the seven-team division currently lays claim to seven of the top 23 recruiting hauls in the class of 2015.
You read that right — out of 128 FBS teams, all seven teams from the West rank in the top 23 in the nation in recruiting.
Obviously a lot can change between now and National Signing Day, beginning as soon as next week when the ongoing recruiting dead period is lifted. But it seems no matter how much shake-up takes place between now and the end of the recruitment process, the West will still be the most dominant force in college football.
And although the West was just 2-5 in bowl games this season, it’s the way the division has owned the gridiron that led to its domination in recruiting.
Some programs in the West sell themselves with relative ease. The Alabamas and LSUs of the world with elite coaches and illustrious football histories will always be on the forefront of the recruiting trail.
But for the division to dominate recruiting to that extent across the board shows there’s much more in play than selling tradition.
The SEC West had its worst week in a decade when it lost five straight bowl games to close the 2014 season, but it was also a perfect 28-0 in non-conference games during the regular season, including wins over Boise State, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Kansas State, to name a few. After all, there’s a reason all seven teams managed to post at least seven wins apiece this season.
Before that, the West claimed five of the last seven national titles and three of the last five Heisman Trophy winners. Those recent bowl losses might have affected our perception of the West in 2014, but they was far from enough to undo the division’s dominance in the years preceding the 2014 season.
And recruits took notice of that stretch of dominance. The SEC, specifically the SEC West, was seen as the gold standard of college football, and recruits who viewed themselves as the best players in the country wanted to prove that fact by starring in the nation’s most hyper-competitive division.
The SEC may no longer be a gold standard after its lack of success during bowl season, but one must realize that many of the teams that suffered letdowns at the end of the season still won eight games or more.
When winning that many games is considered a failure, you know the standards are high and the talent level is higher.
Sure, there are bound to be a handful of recruits that see the success of the Big Ten and the Pac 12 in the inaugural College Football Playoff and elect to take their talents from the SEC to one of those leagues. But there won’t be enough to alter the number of SEC West teams lodged in the upper echelon of the national recruiting rankings.
As the West continues to run things on the recruiting trail, it seems more and more likely that the division’s face plant during the recent bowl season was only a temporary setback, and not the beginning of the West’s demise. After all, performance on the field led to excellence in recruiting, and now it comes back around as dominance in recruiting will likely lead back to a return to glory on the field.
It’s the circle of life in college football, and the West is thriving. The end of 2014 was indeed forgettable, but the division still has plenty of reason to look ahead.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
